Dental cameras are used in dentistry for taking photographs of the mouth, in particular the inside of the mouth and the teeth arranged therein. The representations produced can be displayed on a display device by the treating doctor for the purpose of diagnosis or for discussing treatment options with the patient. A dental camera of this type is disclosed for example in DE 10 2009 017 819 A1.
Dental cameras are furthermore known, which present further diagnostic options over a conventional imaging function, such as caries detection.
Therefore, DE 10 2010 043 796 A1 discloses a dental camera in which a tooth is transilluminated, i.e. has light passed through it, substantially from below in opposition to the viewing direction of camera optics by lateral irradiation with light having a wavelength of 780 nm at the lower gum line. Since healthy tooth enamel is transparent to light of this wavelength, whereas dental caries are not, carious regions of the tooth appear as dark spots in the photographs captured by the camera optics. This known transilluminating dental camera is disadvantageous in that illuminating arms which reach around the tooth on both sides are required to irradiate the light at the lower gum line, and these are sometimes difficult to position. Moreover, differently spaced illuminating arms are required for teeth of varying thicknesses.
DE 10 2004 024 494 A1 discloses a dental camera in which the teeth are illuminated with UV light and it is possible to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy dental tissue by capturing the fluorescent light emitted. However, detecting caries in this way by measuring fluorescent light is not, or not sufficiently, suitable for identifying dental caries in the interdental spaces, in particular between the back teeth. However, dental caries occurs particularly frequently on the approximal surfaces of the back teeth and is otherwise difficult for the dentist to identify visually. Reliable device-aided caries detection is therefore necessary in precisely this area.